The book is especially for those who feel that one should not be content with following a single trajectory [in life].
Introduction
Much premium is placed on serving society. I agree, but I have a point of view here. While I don't advocate a selfish life, I don't believe in an entirely 'selfless' life too. Discovering the self-not the 'ego self but the real self buried under the debris of one's ego should be the primary goal in one's life. One needs to remove the dirt and clear the way for the self to emerge. Serving society helped me in a way to do this, but finding the real self, and thereby meaning, remained my responsibility. I gave twenty-five years of my life to serving the society, and I feel contented about it. The remainder was meant to be spent in seeking my real self. I expect this book to reflect the efforts made by me to do precisely that. Earlier, I took decisions in a mechanical way, be it decisions about what I should study, what work to do and when should I marry and set up my family. Midway through my service, my consciousness stirred awake and slowly I started taking responsibility for my life and made decisions accordingly. There were repeated temptations to return to my former ways, but I stood firm; four times I was given the offer for 'better' postings, but I decided to go to the place I wanted to work in and did what I wanted to do. When I could no longer do that, I decided to quit rather than follow meekly the path shown by the service. If my service and work years took me to different places and exciting experiences, my favourite books and their authors took me on equally exciting journeys of my mind. My consciousness, from being a tiny dot, expanded and soared. I lived with great scholars, philosophers and mystics in my inner realm. Different dimensions of life were revealed, and I became aware of the possibilities and potentialities of my life. Today, I'm still a work in progress. Looking at it in another way, Part I represents my physical, mechanical life consisting of career and family. The unconscious decisions took me from banks to the police service in a distant land, took on family responsibilities at an inappropriate time of life and family faced the consequences of such decisions. During this period, I came across the works of G.I. Gurdjieff and even saw and heard J. Krishnamurti personally, but the accidental inputs remained buried in my subconscious mind. This part also represents my awakening consciousness; I realized the importance of expanded awareness and acute alertness to the demands of my career and family and to say 'no' whenever needed. But the mechanical ways continued, though slightly abated. The chaos finally ended, peace descended and prosperity ensued. I became a consultant with some big corporate houses. I continued my studies, though connected purely with my career of security; an MPhil in defence studies and a PhD in aviation security. Later, I landed in San Francisco, to study MFA in art, and am continuing, as I write this, with research studies (PhD) in philosophy, cosmology and consciousness. All this while, thanks to my wife and sons who took over the responsibilities of running our day-to-day life, I stopped working and shut down the sensory inputs coming in from job, career, money and a significant part of my family life. Part II remains the most important aspect of my life; the ideas, books and authors carefully curated, so that a clear map of the journey of my mind and consciousness emerged, or so I hope. The ideas of the Fourth Way formed the basis of my quest for self-knowledge and the context for myself in the broader canvas of the cosmology and psychology of my heredity, environment, essence and personality. While my early childhood and subsequent
About The Book
The story of an individual who walked out of his 'Goldilocks Zone three times to stay 'alive'. V.R. Sampath leaves his comfort zone the moment it gets too comfortable. Now retired but still a seeker, Sampath's life is governed by freedom and knowledge. He left a stress-free bank job to join the highly demanding Indian Police Service, and then quit the police force at a very senior position to seek challenges in the corporate world. In the corporate world, he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, G.M. Rao and Gautam Adani. If he had a close-up view of how political and administrative power worked during his police days, he got to know the world of money power during his stint in the biggest corporates in India. In Restless, Sampath talks about his life and his encounters with the 'Indian way of life'. Through his varied experiences, he feels that India is on survival mode even after seventy years of independence. This struggle for survival has made Indians devoid of trust, compassion and humanity, more often than not. Then, how does one survive? The book takes an honest and hard look at the definition of success and happiness. Sampath believes that people need to keep reinventing themselves constantly. That is the only way to keep the spirit alive.
About The Author
V.R. Sampath is a former Indian Police Service officer and one of India's top corporate security professionals. He has a Ph.D in aviation security. After retirement, Sampath is pursuing a Ph.D in consciousness studies in the US. He lives in California with his family.
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